SDLP Foyle MLA Sinead McLaughlin
She said intervention was needed urgently as families face rising energy prices and low income households hit by a benefit cut.
In a statement to the Assembly this week, the Foyle MLA said: “The people we represent are struggling.
“They are struggling because while for many of them their income has gone down, their costs have gone up.
“Universal Credit payments have been cut by £20 a week. Yet food prices have risen – food price inflation is 2% and general inflation 3%.
“And we all know about energy costs. Consumers are likely to be paying an extra £1,000 a year because of higher energy and fuel costs.
“So it is no wonder that our constituents are asking what we are doing about this.
“Yet, we still don’t have the policies in place that we need. The energy strategy is not yet published, nor is the fuel poverty strategy.
“We need the Executive to act. We need a task force to oversee the publication of the energy and fuel poverty strategies.
“We need the Executive to make sure we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past – such as over-reliance on a single type of renewable energy, with too little wind blowing in recent months that has caused a lack of supply from onshore wind turbines.
“We should by now have exploited other forms of renewables, in particular offshore wind.
“And other mistakes, such as the Department for Communities’ Affordable Warmth Scheme encouraging consumers to switch to the increasingly expensive gas burning, when we should be focusing very much more on energy efficiency and lower energy use.
“We have the opportunity to assist families in need, because the Department for the Economy is returning £40m of underspends.
“So let us have a cost of living taskforce that considers how best to spend those funds, while ensuring the energy and fuel poverty strategies meet the needs of our people – while being flexible enough that they change as new energy systems evolve.
“Without action, far too many of our population will have the choice between heating and eating – that is a choice that no family or pensioner should be faced with.
“We already have an NHS crisis, a crisis that was made so much worse because of the collapse of this Assembly, which meant vital reform decisions were not taken. With the Covid crisis, we have a system that is overwhelmed, leaving patients waiting for vital treatment.
“And people left in cold and often damp homes this winter because they can’t afford to switch the heating on – those are people who will be vulnerable to infection, more likely to fall ill with breathing difficulties, more likely to have young children struggling with asthma and bronchitis.
“So we need our Executive to show a lead, to carefully consider how to make a very bad situation better. I call on the Executive to work together and to act on this cost of living crisis.”
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